Bad Habits in Tarkov

Tarkov is already a difficult game in of itself. With so many different mechanics that revolve around the game, it makes sense that from time to time, we might slip up and make a mistake. Okay, a lot of mistakes if you’re me. I have a lot of bad habits in Tarkov; I suppose it’s a by-product of playing so many different games over the years, especially other shooters. It can be something as simple as not hitting an easy shot, but most of the time, again, like Tarkov, the habits are a little more nuanced. And get me killed more often as a result. I wanted to talk about some of those habits and just basically ramble a little bit about how stupid they are and how often they get me head eyes’d sometimes. Because at the end of the day, Tarkov is a hard game; whether you’ve played for just a few days, or even a few years. We all get our assess kick in Tarkov from time to time; so, it’s good to reflect on those mistakes and habits to try and remedy them for the future.

The first one that immediately pops into my head, is my refusal to make noise in Tarkov sometimes. I mentioned this in my covert movement video, but with the way things are right now, whenever I go into sneaking mode, and I know there are people around me, it can be difficult to flip the switch and go on the offensive. That is only compounded especially when I know people are vulnerable with eating, reloading, or healing or some kind. It’s so hard to get out of the mindset that you win in this game by being aggressive; being active and having people around you always on the backfoot. This is usually an indoors situation; normally if I'm outside on a map it’s not that big of a deal, but whenever I’m in dorms, or the resort especially. I end up trying to be all quiet and calculated, only to have the dood I think I'm creeping up on, fly around the corner and kill me with his first bullet because he knew I was there the entire time. Which sucks, and is kind of demoralizing when you think you’re doing the right thing and it blows up in your face magnificently. But it’s one of those situations that you have to just take on the chin and learn from. It’s okay to make noise in this game; everyone does, and being active is better than reactive. You have more time to figure out a plan in your head and have people acquiesce to whatever it is that you’re doing. And this goes double for all you solo player enthusiasts out there like myself; when you don’t have teammates to rely on for extra eyes and ears, you need to be making the first moves. Because if you don’t, having to be on the backfoot is the fastest way to get killed. You don’t have to b-hope everywhere and pixel peak every single door. But if you go into dorms and hear someone hurt and trying to med up, run at them. You’d be surprised how often that will work in your favor.

Another habit that gets me killed every now and again is the refusal to splurge on better ammo or armor. With how good other players are at the game, and some of the nasty angles and shots people hit on me, it begs the question out of frustration sometimes of why wear armor? Why use better ammo? Because whenever I do put the big boy gear on and actually try to “Chad” out, it usually ends in 8 second raids for me. But, being now level 42 and having all the vendors at max loyalty levels, and having a decent number of rubles on me, I can’t let bad raids be the reason for future deaths. If I want to do something like zero to hero, or rags to riches style raids that’s one thing; I thoroughly enjoy those kinds of raids. That style of gameplay tells a much more interesting story and is something I actually want to try in video format in the future and see where it goes and what happens. But, for just normal raids where I’m playing Tarkov and just trying to have fun, if I have the option to run better equipment, there isn’t a good excuse not too anymore. I have all the resources I would need to succeed. And yet, I still find myself running worse armor and even more egregious, worse ammo. Even after, actually looking at the date, it’s been over 5 years since I started playing Tarkov. Woooo! Distraction aside, it’s been a very long time for me, and yet there are still little inklings of gear fear deep inside. Why? I don’t know. I would argue that it’s kind of a good thing, because it means I still care about my stuff when I die, but if I don’t use it ever, than I've already lost it. So, it’s one of those feelings that I will eventually shake off. Hopefully. It’s funny too, because I even remember making a promise to myself at the start of this wipe, that if early on, I got some really good gear, like armor or a strong weapon, that I would use it and just commit to it rather than stash it for later. And yet I have a CPC level 5 armored rig, still in my stash, from maybe the second or even first day of the wipe. Soooo, yeah. Gear fear is still very much real. Either way, it always come around eventually. Do a I say not as I do.

A much more recent bad habit that has crept up because the game around us has changed enough to facilitate this, is leaving my guns in full-auto all the time, instead of being in single fire and switching only when I actually need it. In this day and age of Tarkov where a lot of the guns have really gross recoil, it makes sense to actually have them in single most of the time, and then switch to full when the situation calls for it. It’s one of the reasons why I much prefer single shot only weapons like the ADAR or the new SAG AK; they force you to use these weapons one way, and because of that you have to adapt your situational awareness around that fact. It’s a good “check” to make sure you aren’t just blindly relying on your weapons full auto capabilities. To be fair though, most weapon’s that are not fully modded out have very poor full auto, which in of itself is arguably an issue too. But regardless, Full auto honestly has gotten me killed more times than I’d like to admit. Because that initial flurry of bullets creates so much recoil, by the time you wrangle it in, you’re either not aiming for vitals, or are just dead. Aim punch plays a role in this as well, but another can of worms for another time, if I may be honest. Semi alleviates some of that stress, but when you get run up on and only have semi, that can get you killed as well. So, being in the habit of starting raids in semi and then switching into full auto when you go in a building or any kind of close quarters, helps make those kinds of deaths hurt less. Yeah, it can be annoying to constantly switch back and forth, but you’re doing yourself a favor in regards to your ammo consumption as well. Every gun is going to behave differently when on full auto; some are better than others, even when they are not mix/maxed. But it pays to try and be disciplined with which mode you are actively trying to use.

I’m sure there are other bad habits I have that I can think of right now. Whether it’s about movement, ammo, guns, armor; they all end in death. I’m curious what others have for bad habits in Tarkov. I can imagine because this game is so vast, other people who play have a plethora of different bad habits they would like to break. So, I ask; what are your bad habits whenever you play Tarkov? I bet that I’ll see ones in the comments I couldn’t think of that’ll make me remember a death because of it.